Fontainebleau State Park Visitors' Center

STRATEGY

TPA coordinated a complex array of partnerships, interests, and project parameters in the first major planning project since the park’s formation. Prior to commencing design, an inventory of natural and cultural resources was completed to establish the parameters that would dictate all proposed development. A three-day design charrette that included the designers, State Representatives, and various local environmental and civic groups was held at the park.

Responding to site and local climate, the new Visitors’ Center collects informational exhibits, event space, ranger offices, retail, and services under a broad roof whose overhangs create shaded porches. The program is organized in two blocks in a traditional dog-trot scheme, channeling cooling breezes and framing a view directly through the building to the sugar plantation ruins beyond.

On the shore of the lake, 12 visitor cabins perch high above the shallows at the margin between woods and water with views oriented west and south across Pontchartrain to the sunset.